Elements of the Mountains

Fumes

We climb down the hill face, doing our best not to slip or fall. When we get to the bottom we look out over the grave, I even find it hard to breathe. Those of us who have weapons, have them drawn and ready, the only people who don't have a gun are Weaver and Randa, who are taking photos. We all explore this mass grave, James and I even find what looks like something bit into the ground. As we walk across the field one of the soldiers lights up a cigarette and one of the younger ones scolds him, "Cole, we don't got time for that, man." Cole tosses the cigarette back and hits a gas pocket, causing a small explosion.

Randa, who is standing in a mandible bone, calls out, "watch those fumes!"

I shake my head and roll my eyes, "idiots."

"Let's go," Packard calls over the group to rejoin, "we gotta move!"

As we continue we hear a strange sound and we all freeze, James pushes me behind him, "stay behind me and don't leave my side."

We all stand there in silence for a moment before Marlow shouts, "run!"

We all run and hide, some taking shelter in a large skull, others hiding behind and under shoulder blades. All we can do is watch and wait for whatever it is to make an appearance. We don't have to wait long, until one of the Skull Crawlers comes out of the smoke. I gasp softly upon the sight of the creature and take a few deep breaths, trying to stay quiet. The creature moves close to us and screeches, I place a hand over my mouth, still trying to take deep quiet breaths. Soon the crawler begins to cough and it throws up a skull right next to us. Once the skull stops moving, I can see it has dog tags on it. Dog tags that say 'Chapman, Jack.' Soon the crawler moves away from us, the soldiers begin to move out, and we stand.

"Rally on me. Rally up!" Packard orders, "somebody cover the civilians' six. Let's move!" We are all on high alert, looking around for any sign of the crawler. But Randa's camera malfunctions and the flash begins to flash erratically. As we hear the machine continue to flash we turn, just in time to see Randa be eaten by the crawler. We all begin to fire on the crawler. But it seems to do little to it and it walks away, "set up the 50!" The men set up a machine gun on top of a skull of a triceratops. We all look around, watching. Waiting. We wait for what feels like decades before we see the flashing in the distance and growing closer as it circles us.

The crawler charges, passing Marlow first, thankfully, he moves out of the creature path. We all turn and I grab Weaver by the arm, "go!" The soldier fires the machine gun at the crawler, but he is eaten after the crawler destroys the skull. Weaver and I run through and under bones as we try to get away, arms linked. Weaver looks back, "don't turn around." We slide into a pile of rib bones, luckily the crawler can't easily get to us in here, though that doesn't stop it from trying.

"Bring the torch! Do your thing!" I look over toward Packard and see that one of the soldiers has a flame thrower.

"Move! Move!" I push Weaver up and forward so we can get out of the way. The crawler hits the man with the flamethrower with his tail and knocks him into a skull, causing the pack to explode. Weaver and I turn away from the flames and when I look back up I see Slivko laying on the ground, "Slivko!"

As I move to run toward him I hear James, "gas!" I look around and see the containers of poisonous gas Slivko had had on him. I turn and run as quickly as I can. As the gas explodes the pterodactyl things come out of nowhere, attacking us. We try our best to hold them off, I shot a couple of them, but Marlow has the best defense, the sword.

I look over to James, "someone has to get to Slivko!"

James looks over to Marlow, "Marlow!" He runs towards him, "sword!" Marlow tosses James the sword and as he runs by he grabs a gas mask that is on one of the lost soldiers' bags. He charges through the field, slicing the birds in two. Once he gets to the other side of the gas he rips his mask off and sticks the sword in the ground, once he reaches Slivko, "Slivko, hang on!"

Weaver scoffs, "now I see why you're with him."

I chuckle and nod, "I mean, I'm not with him for his looks."

"Damn girl!" Marlow smiles over to me, "woo!"

Somehow I manage to get around to James and Slivko, as the creature starts toward them, "this thing's moving!" Packard shouts.

I run up behind them and take out the lighter James had given me last night, light it and throw it, hoping to hit a gas pocket. Luckily, I do and it explodes, sending James, Slivko and I back. The crawler lets out one final cry in pain and collapses. I wince and look over to James, "I'm sorry."

James winces as he chuckles, "for what?"

"I may or may not have had to throw your father's lighter to save your ass." James chuckles before he rolls over and kisses me, he then falls on his back, letting out a loud sigh.

We all get up and start to head out, James helping Slivko walk since I'm pretty sure his ankle is broken if not sprained. "Of all the injuries I could get, I get a volleyball injury," Slivko sighs.

"Hey, it could be a lot worse," I shrug.